school th6 children will set for themselves hundreds of related exercises out of school. The 

 result of this work is that the sense organs are trained, the fundamental brain centers are de- 

 veloped and the mind is stored with a fund of elementary concepts, of the greatest value in the 

 later apperceptive work of the school. 



As indicative of the value of this training to the individual the fact may be cited that 

 whenever one person stands out prominently above his fellows, in any avenue of life in which 

 there is severe competition, it will be found that this individual has had the benefit of a rural 

 environment during the critical period of his development. Almost without exception it will 

 be found that he was reared in the country, or in a village with its rural advantages, or that 

 prolonged visits to the country were made during his childhood. If one will write down the 

 great names of any branch of knowledge or human activity, from the earliest times to the 

 present day, and then will take the trouble to look up their early biography he will be im- 

 pressed with the importance of the rural over the urban environment. This is all the more 

 remarkable when we consider that about one-half the people live in the cities and that here 

 are to be found the best schools and other institutions calculated to promote individual 

 culture and power. It is remarked by business men that the boys from the country come to 

 the city and in time work into the best places. The subject is a most important one and 

 worthy of the fullest investigation, because of its bearing upon the education of city children. 

 In searching for an explanation a considerable variety of views will be developed. Is it that 

 the average country boy is better fed, better clothed, has better air, is more active or has 

 more responsibility thrust upon his shoulders ? There are many city boys over whom the 

 country boy has no such advantage. Some see the explanation in the opportunity for manual 

 training afforded by the farm but this could scarcely account for those forms of genius posses- 

 sed by the poet, orator, statesman or financier. The most probable explanation is that the 

 environment found in the country and village is favorable for that direct contact with Nature 

 in this critical, formative period of the child's development. His motor and sense centers are 

 developed symmetrically and naturally and a stable foundation laid for those centers control- 

 ling the higher mental powers. In the case of the city child no such foundation is laid, and 

 in the highly artificial environment of this industrious and commercial age he is prematurely 

 developed. Of the wealthier classes many have their country homes, but for the middle 

 and lower classes the only practicable remedy is to send the children to the country for the 

 summer and to bring as much as possible of the country into the schools during the year. 



2. METHODS OF STUDY. Beginning with the very simple, superficial observations of the 

 younger children the result of the Nature work of the elementary grades should be to develop 

 correct methods of scientific study. The results secured will form a splendid foundation for 

 the work of the high school, in the case of the limited number who continue their studies, and 

 will render life-long service to those who are compelled to drop out at the close of the eighth 

 grade. Following the lead of primitive man the child observes more or less superficially, il- 

 logically and incompletely. By skillful guidance the Nature work may be made to yield a 

 rich harvest of results. The habit of observing closely, accurately and completely and accord- 

 ing to some systematic order, may be acquired by school children. The ability to discover 

 differences and resemblances, to arrive at correct judgments and to reason inductively will 

 result from Nature work that is properly presented. Every child should be made to 

 understand the danger of error arising from hasty judgments based upon a single, or limited 

 number of observations. (See President Eliot's paper "Wherein Popular Education has 

 Failed;" Forum, Volume XIV, page 411.) The child should be gradually freed from the 

 bondage and tyranny of superstition. Just here the teacher should be warned that these 

 results are to be secured as the result of the Nature study and elementary science of the entire 

 sight grades and that only a beginning is desirable for the primary grades. In these lower 

 grades the constantly recurring question should be what ; in the intermediate grades what 

 and how and in the grammar grades what, how and why. 



3. ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE. In placing this as one of the important purposes of 

 Nature work in the schools there is danger of the teacher inferring that it is the sole, or most 

 important purpose. This attitude of the teacher is rendered easier because of the over- 

 emphasis placed upon mere information in the other subjects of the school course and results 

 in the teacher merely lecturing about the Nature topics. As a matter of fact the securing of 

 information, adapted to the age of the pupil, is of importance, since none of the higher results 



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